I’m not the biggest fan of birthdays.  I mean, it is something to make it another year, but birthdays also remind me that, well, I am a little older, and there is still a lot in life I thought I would have accomplished or experienced in life by now, but I haven’t.

Still, I am 45. I feel about 20 emotionally, and sometimes 60 physically.

This morning I thought the best thing I could do to celebrate this moment in my life is to just share some thoughts I think at this time- about getting this far in life, about living, about making it to 45.

In no certain order or significance, here are some nuggets for you..

1. Less Facebook, more face time.
2. Without your health, you have nothing.
3. Faith is putting all of your weight on someone- not just meeting them once a week for coffee.
4. Sex is awesome, but sex without love leaves you hungry.
5. In the Bible, all the stories are largely about how God meets and works in and through individuals.  God is not merely about institutions.
6. American evangelical Christianity, like any other shape of a faith community, is not fully what God meant His church to be.
7. Less meat, more vegetables.
8. Less sugar, more meat.
9. Identify people who invest in your life and celebrate them.  They are the people that make your life stronger.
10. As soon as possible, identify who you are in life (values) and who you want to be (goals).  The only way to get from here to there is to know where you are setting out from, where you want to get to, and then find a route to get there.
11. New Testament faith is about listening to the Holy Spirit and taking His lead- not keeping the commandments.  Be responsive to God, not simply “right” around God.
12. More writing, less worrying.
13. Remember- today’s outsider is often tomorrow’s insider.
14. If it is hurting you, stop it.
15. Keep positive and forward-looking.  Pouting about your past will guarantee that you will miss your life in the present.
16. Love yourself.  It’s okay- God made you to.
17. Plan more.
18. Learn how to say ‘No’ more frequently.
19. Time is the most important resource you have.  Use it well.
20. A love lesson learned: no matter how much you think you love someone, if they don’t respond to your efforts or invest in your life, don’t hang on to them hoping for that beatific  “What if?”
21. To seize one opportunity in life, you will often have to let go of another.
22. For anything worthwhile you want in life, you have to really work for it.
23. If you work hard for anything you really want in life and you get it, you will value it.
24. Work is part of life.  The key is to find what it is in life that you would love to work endlessly on, and figure out how to do that for a job.
25. Age is a number.  Vitality is an attitude.  You are only as old as you tell yourself you are.
26. You always get to choose what you believe in in life- and the adult will admit and embrace his beliefs fully.
27. The key to having good relationships in life has a large part to do with simply learning how to be there for others.
28. Keep risking.  Life at any age is found in risking, in putting yourself out there to be stretched and to grow.
29. Take a lot of side roads in life- and stop at the scenic viewpoints along the way.
30. Helping others is the best way to see how rich you are in your own life.
31. Always forgive yourself. Love demands it.  Especially if others have already forgiven you.
32. The faster you learn how to budget and manage your resources, the faster you can live your life out of your surplus.
33. Debt will always tie you up and limit your options.  Avoid it as much as possible.
34. Say thanks a lot.  And then work on saying it more.
35. Fortune, like charisma, is largely a product of attitude.  We very much talk ourselves into much of the lives we lead- or don’t lead.
36. Love is always open-handed, closed-eyed, and full-hearted.
37. As best as you can, master your time, your money, and your heart.
38. Just because everyone else is doing it does’nt mean it’s your way.  Don’t just follow others.  Life is usually not found in merely following.
39. If you are young, one day you will be old, so really live.  If you are old, one day you were young, so really love.
40. Laugh a lot, even if it borders on the formally sacrilegious.  God loves a good sense of humor.
41. Dreams, like dragons, are best chased by a group.
42. It’s okay to have a personal dream or two you chase.
43. If you look for people to help when they most need it, people will likewise jump in for you when you most need it.
44. Depression is a malady of the self-absorbed.
45. At any age, life still lies in the practice of following your heart.